Tahoe - Part 1

Stephen, Miles and I just got back from our first family trip! We traveled to Tahoe to visit Grammie who hadn't had the chance to meet Miles yet. Oh, was she in for a treat. Miles is right at that perfect age where everything is fun, everything is interesting, he has the ability to be flexible annnnnd he climbs (or tries to climb) on everything - much to Grammie's fright! We had high hopes of a stress free trip, but definitely did our research to assist with the "stress free" part. Ha!

Prior to heading out, Miles helped me pack. "Helped" is a loose term...

The next day, we woke up at 2am (yes, the middle of the night) to get ready and head to the airport. All of the articles I read said to be 2 hours early to the airport just in case security takes awhile, etc. Traveling with babies just slows everything down apparently. Our flight was leaving at 5:30am, so we arrived at 3:15am. Turns out, Austin airport baggage drop off doesn't open until 3:45. Dang! Missed 30min extra sleep. Nowhere in my research did I find that!

Once the bags were checked, we went through security where I had already pre-packed everything for baby that security would have to look more closely at. The water, formula, baby snacks and food pouches, wipes, baby powder, medicine - really anything in powder or liquid form. Because of my planning, security was a breeze! *pats on back*

We got to the gate in plenty of time, so Miles had a chance to walk around and "mingle" with people at the airport. We've noticed he loves to people watch and even more to flirt with strangers. He would walk by someone, give a quick look, and offer a huuuge smile. If they smiled back, he'd turn around and get closer and closer, just smiling and giggling. It was nice to think, "Hey, if they're on our flight and Miles screams the entire time, at least they got a good first impression, right?" Fingers crossed...

We had our plan of keeping Miles awake during take off so he could drink and eat to alleviate his ears from the pressure. After that, we'd give him his lovey and *hope* that he falls asleep. That was the plan. But, of course, nothing goes perfectly to plan. He did great at lift off and loved looking out the window at other airplanes while we were taxiing.

Once the time came for him to sleep, he just couldn't figure out how to calm himself down. We tried books, toys, his lovey, teething rings, everything. But, he was just so over-tired. He cried (screamed....) for about 15 minutes until we caved and gave him some Tylenol in hopes of calming his body. He cried for maybe 10 more minutes until Stephen was able to get him to sleep. This first flight was our longer of the two. He slept for about 30 minutes, but once he woke up, he was in a much better mood.

We had about an hour lay over in Vegas where we fed Miles (and Stephen) some breakfast. This flight was only about an hour and we had our game plan based on the first flight. Again, Miles did great at take off and thankfully, fell right to sleep once we were in the air. He slept for the entire flight - soooo nice.

We made it!........to Reno. Ugh! Getting to Tahoe is so hard. Once in Reno, we grabbed our rental car and made the 45min trek up the mountain.

Miles made the best of Reno. LOTS of things at his height he could climb (thankfully the airport was pretty slow and none of the carousels were on)

Miles did great in the car but you could tell he was SO over it. But finally, we made it into Tahoe.

He'd run back and forth, inside and outside, back and forth, back and forth

I got his room all setup with the pack n play, monitor, sound machine, changing station, etc and it was time for nap. We were so hoping he would have a good rest since we all knew he needed it. It's a new place, new bed, new noises...so it took him awhile to settle. But, he fell asleep and stayed asleep for about 2 hours. The perfect reset.

Miles and Omi playing with matchbox cars they picked up from the store. I brought toys, but he literally played with these our entire trip. 

After nap, we went down to the dock and got ready for a joy ride with Uncle Ricky in the boat! I was a little nervous that Miles would hate it. Loud noises are usually not his thing. But, the little guy surprised me!

Miles is a little unsure - mostly of the life jacket

Semi amused...

Taking it all in

But in the end, he LOVED it!

So did Stephen - total perma-grin!

Miles did great at bedtime and we were pumped to have a chance to hang out and have dinner with Uncle Ricky. A big pot of Stephen's spaghetti madness, some drinks and a lot of laughs later, we called it a night. It may have been only 9pm, but we'd been up since Midnight Tahoe time!

Goodnight!!

Stay tuned for Tahoe Part 2!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY MILES!

Today is Miles' 1st birthday! Happy Happy Birthday sweet boy!

It is amazing to see how much has changed. Most noticeably, his hair!

 

To see all his monthly pictures side by side, check out One Basket, One Adorable Baby.

Stephen and I are so proud of Miles and how he's grown into a giggly, happy, playful, chatty and all around amazing, easy kid. He's found his independence and thrives on figuring things out on his own. The once "needs a little motivation" has dissipated and now he loves exploring and learning new things. We are pumped to see where the future will take us with Miles and his infectious personality. Just beware - the high pitched squeals are still holding strong and still as piercing as ever! ....Maybe we have a singer on our hands....?

Some big changes on the horizon:
We are transitioning out of formula and into milk! We haven't started yet but plan to slowly mix the milk with his formula and hopefully be fully on milk in a couple weeks. My goal (and hope) is he'll be off by the time we head to Tahoe. Traveling with formula is not so ideal.

Another change? School! He will be starting school for the first time in September. We are finishing up the enrollment forms and then it'll be set. After his party, I have a much better feeling about him playing and interacting with other kids. I think he'll do great. :)

Lastly, his schedule will be changing come the time for school. They are on a one nap per day schedule and he's currently napping twice. I've done some research and kids typically transition to one nap per day at around 18 months. So, he'll be transitioning early. I'm hopeful, but a little nervous about this whole process. We'll see how it goes.

As of right now, our schedule is holding pretty strong. I know it will change, but for those curious:
8:00am:  Wake up. Bottle & snuggles
9:30am:  Breakfast
10:15am:  Nap time
11:30/12:00pm:  Usually awake
12:30pm:  Afternoon bottle (this has lessened to him eating only 2-4 oz per time instead of a full 6oz)
1:30pm:  Lunch
2:15pm:  Nap time
3:30/4:00pm:  Usually awake
5:00/5:15pm:  Dinner
6:00pm:  Snack (we call it 2nd dinner. ha!)
7:00/7:15pm:  Bottle and the start of bedtime
7:30/7:40pm:  In bed

ALL ABOUT MILES:
- Grabbing a smile from him is not hard....making Target runs with this kid pretty fun. "Oh my goodness - look at that face! Look how cute he is!" (What I hear from pretty much every person who stands in line behind us.)

- He's running - like true running - which means he gets places QUICK. We gotta be on our toes with this one. One minute he's playing, the next, he's in the toilet. Lovely.

- He's talking A LOT. While he has no words and makes no sense, the inflections and structure is all there. He's over there talk talk talking and then starts to laugh like he's told a joke. It's pretty cute.

- His sign language has picked up a bit. He knows "More", "All done", "Fish", "Milk", "Book" and is working on "Change". If you sign book, he will find one, bring it to you and sit in your lap. SO cute :)

- Baby food is a thing of the past. Unless it's prunes or yogurt, he doesn't want it. We are onto real food for good now. His only consistent dislike is avocados.

- He has 6 TEETH! That 7th one has been on the horizon for awhile and I'm anticipating it will pop through any day now.

- Flapping his arms means he's excited.

- He's a master at straw cups and camel backs. The tip cups are still a little hard for him.

And just for fun, some behind the scenes photos from this last shoot. It was the HARDEST to date. Why you ask? I was tackling this photoshoot by myself making a few things pretty difficult.

Having him look at me and not the balloons. Yea......no.

 

Making sure the balloons behaved when he actually DID look at me. NOPE

 

Trying to be more entertaining and interesting than the grass? Not a chance.

And lastly, getting the camera to focus on him and not the trees behind him? You are talking crazy now. I took about 200 photos and I got maaaaybe 30 that were in focus. It's hard because he wouldn't smile if my face was behind the camera so I was snapping these pics essentially blind.

But, when you capture the face and his true personality is coming through (even if it's the ONLY good one you get), it's worth it :)

It's been so much fun and at times stressful, emotional and challenging trying to navigate our new role as parents, but Stephen and I couldn't be more happy to call him ours. On to the next steps

pArTy aNiMaLs!

Happy Early Birthday to Miles! We had a bunch of friends and family over this weekend to celebrate Miles turning 1! I've been planning for the past couple months trying to put together an amazing party for our perfect little boy. I have to say, it turned out exactly as I hoped. Stephen was able to help with the decorating with his vinyl expertise, and I was able to get my creative juices flowing with a bunch of crafts to tie everything together. Check it out!

Animal parade with vinyl graphics at the entry compliments of Stephen. When Miles saw them for the first time, he was "talking" to them and pointing at them - "ah! oo!! DADA! *spit* *SQUEAL!*". He definitely noticed this piece of decor - not sure about the rest. Ha!

Party animal mascots

More awesome vinyl work! The monkey's were a big hit.

3 days, 2 people and a vow never to do this again and this masterpiece was created. Take THAT Pinterest!

Miles' smash cake

The spread

In addition to the party animals, I also printed and framed all of Miles' monthly pics so everyone could see how much he's grown. I'd say the biggest surprise to most was his super dark hair when he was tiny. 

I added party hats to all of the toy animals. It took forever, but they looked so adorable. Time well spent

Now, on to the party! We were excited to have a lot of the neighborhood kids come and I was interested to see how Miles would do with the big crowd. When he was little, the noise and the crowds were not his cup of tea. But, as he's gotten older, he seems to have relaxed a bit.

Dude. He did amazing! He was running around and laughing. He would tolerate pretty much anyone who wanted to hold him. He was playing games with people and just such a happy little guy. It makes me a lot less anxious about him starting school in the fall.

Playing "catch the feet" with people walking around

Making new friends!

"See ya!"

Todd and Stephen setup a movie theater and gaming center upstairs for the older kids. Lets just say, we didn't see much of them. 

We also lost some of the adults from time to time... lol!

"I waaaant that!" - Miles

His face during the Happy Birthday song. Not sure it was the people singing, or the fire, but he seemed quite interested.

Re-phrase - VERY interested. haha!

First evaluation

The official taste

A quick shiver

Annnd...done. Officially accepted.

Check out the singing and cake eating in action.

Pic with the cousins!

Gramma and Grandpa

Buahaha! Omi, I love this one

After opening the first gift, Miles was done. All he wanted was THAT toy. 

Miles was on a high from the sugar, the attention, all the people...everything! I think it's safe to say he had a blast. We put him down and the adults hung out for the rest of the night. Stephen and I had such a good time and appreciate everyone who came out to celebrate our little boy. He is definitely loved!

Photo credits:  Thanks Becky for taking all the pics! They're perfect!